The Sarah Jane Adventures

A First Look at the Doctor Who Spin-off

Checked out the first episode of the new Doctor Who--the longest running television series in history--spin-off show entitled The Sarah Jane Adventures. Sarah Jane Smith, played by actress Elisabeth Sladen, was a Doctor Who companion from his third and fourth incarnations, actors

Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. She made a reappearance during the 10^th Doctor's, David Tennant's, tenure appearing in the second season episode The School Reunion alongside then-current companion Billie Piper's Rose Tyler. This show, the second spin-off from the resurrected Doctor Who, is aimed mostly at families and especially children. The other spin-off, Torchwood, is aimed at a more mature audience than even Doctor Who, which has always been a show the whole family can watch together. For curiosity's sake, I checked it out and wasn't bowled over.

The show features Sarah Jane investigating strange goings-on alongside a pre-teen crew of neighbors and a strange alien-produced human boy, whom she adopts in the pilot episode. The boy, who adopts the name Luke Smith, was produced as a template for all humans and possess the best of the whole race. The episodes are fine and all, however I do not think that Elisabeth Sladen can do this all by herself. Her appearances in Doctor Who as a companion were all well and good, however as the lead of a show, I do not believe her character has what it takes.

The first episode, which ran longer than the normal 30-minutes (which itself is different from Doctor Who or Torchwood, which both run about 45-minutes and translate to an hour long show here in America), dealt with an alien race trying to enslave Earth through its children with soft drinks. The second episode, the first of a two-part story, dealt with the return of the Slitheen, a race that The Doctor faced during his first new season back with 9^th Doctor Christopher Eccleston. The episodes were fine, however they did not have the pop, the speed, or the story to hold my interest like Doctor Who and Torchwood does.